


paid for in sweat and tears and blood (five hotel rooms daisy has stayed in)

by shortitude



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, This Is An Actual Shippy Fic, but not like that you pervs, even if it's mostly just wordy and subtle and focused on Daisy through the seasons, not yet anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 17:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7447954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shortitude/pseuds/shortitude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What it says on the tin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	paid for in sweat and tears and blood (five hotel rooms daisy has stayed in)

**Author's Note:**

> for **zauberer_sirin** , who asks for 'hotel rooms & skoulson' because she says she is predictable. there are people speaking spanish in this one, because _i'm_ predictable too.

**one.**

She’s the one who books the rooms for everyone, because apparently dropping from the sky in a flying car that won’t fly again anytime soon hasn’t taken away her ability to get to work. Besides, they can't stay out in the open for too long, and she bets Ward wouldn't dream of looking for them in a place like this, if he'll ever bother. It's a motel that boasts a swimming pool and free wifi, but more importantly doesn't ask for IDs when they check in under obviously fake names.

" _Pablo_?" he asks her, while the concierge heads into the backroom to get them towels for each room.

"What? It seemed like the logical choice, you speak Spanish," Skye explains, waving her hand idly as she looks around - trying to pinpoint exits and making strategies in her head, he can tell, and he was so right when he said she'd make a great profiler, he's only sad she never got to be an agent longer than one day, because if there was ever an earned badge...

"Sí," he answers her instead, and smiles beatifically at the concierge when he brings them the towels. " _Gracias_."

Skye cracks a smile beside him, and takes half the towels from the guy with an " _Adios_."

He waits until they're out of hearing range before murmuring, "Your accent could do some work." It makes her laugh, and the sound surprises her; she'd forgotten she could do that. How fitting that Coulson be the one to remind her.

**two.**

It's not exactly hotel suite chic, but it's better than the holding room she moved all her stuff to on the Bus, so she'll take it if she must. While Coulson explains the cabin's functions and facilities to her, she follows him around quietly - cautious not to make anything tremble now, careful not to screw things up for herself so quickly - and realizes that this might be the longest he's talked to her in a while. It feels like the last time they were alone together was a million years ago, and the memory of that time adds to the bittersweet moment here.

The fact is, he's not going to stay with her; she's being moved, yes, for her safety (but mostly for everyone's), and she is going to say goodbye to him in a few minutes and hope that it won't be forever.

He explains the food he brought for her, and how he'll be back with more in a couple of days when things calm down, and she suddenly misses Pablo and the swimming pool, she misses the simpler times when she wasn't a monster, when she didn't have something _else_ in her veins, when she wasn't just a lot of trouble for her people.

"Next time, we can roast marshmallows."

Somehow, Skye feels like there won't be a next time, but she tries to hug him like it isn't goodbye.

**three.**

"Nice digs."

As far as first lines go, it's not her best work (but still, probably an upgrade from 'whassup?'), but it's the presentation that sells it. He comes into the hotel room looking tired, probably disappointed and frustrated to have lost the scent of 'the mysterious Quake' again, only to find her sitting crossed-legged on his hotel bed, on top of a pile of newspaper clippings of herself and files on everyone she's ever rescued (well, what little intel she has on them, because Daisy does her job well).

"I especially like the art deco," she says, pointing out the map of her movements with her finger, and managing a hesitant smile, "Who's your inspiration?"

She expects him to be mad, it's been nine months of radio silence - nine months of knowing he was on her trail and latching onto that because it was the most comforting fact she allowed herself to accept right now - and this is how she chooses to break it? If she were him, she'd be mad. He has every right, she wasn't forthcoming with the desire to run away, even though she'd promised him she'd never keep secrets from him again.

" _Skye,_ " he exhales, stepping into the room and locking the door behind him like he thinks he's in a dream.

"See, I can't even get properly mad at you for that one, Pablo," she mutters, fondly, and gets up from the bed.

"Daisy - I'm sorry - " The transformation of his facial expression is astonishing even in this dim light (he hasn't bothered with the switch in his surprise): he goes from surprise to affection to relief to panic. "What are you doing here?"

"Letting you know I'm okay?" She did kind of bring the roof down on herself in that last fight, and now newspapers are claiming _Infamous Quake: Dead?_ She thought he'd worry - no, that's a lie - she _hoped_ he'd worry.

"It's not safe," he whispers, but comes closer. Almost in a trance, he reaches out to touch her shoulder; she shouldn't allow it, and he's right, she shouldn't even _be here_ , but she hasn't been touched in a way that hasn't made her regret even the memory of it for months, and she's a little weak. She leans into it, and even lets out a small whimper when he pulls her into an engulfing hug.

She hugs him back, and hopes that says it all: that she's sorry they keep not meeting like this, that she has missed him and that she is getting better at letting people hug her and offer her comfort, even if she still struggling with accepting their forgiveness (there's a reason she won't go see Mack; she can't handle it without breaking down and crying again, and she can't afford to).

"Saw you're booked under Pablo again," she murmurs against his shoulders, when they have spoken through silence enough.

"I was hoping you would."

There isn't a lot she can say to that. There is a _lot_ that that says to her. It makes what follows even harder. "Stop following me, Phil." She hugs him tight (hugs him goodbye), and pulls away quickly. "One of these days, you won't like what you find."

He lets her climb out the window, lets her get away, but he doesn't let her get away clean-free; his answer will echo in her dreams for nine more months to come. "I doubt it."

**four.**

They set her up in a motel room before the hearing, likely because they think she'll try to run away and don't want to have to pay for the expensive kind of property damage. It's a well-guarded one in any case, although Daisy has already told them it won't be necessary. She's promised someone she won't run away again, and she intends to keep that promise. Besides, it's a unique opportunity to build on the public support Quake has gathered, and defend her people's right to be left alone, as well as point out the handful of organizations that are already using them as weapons or experiments.

Also, to be fair, a motel room in Wakanda is actually more luxurious than any one she's been in until now.

Coulson, currently making himself a cappuccino in the room's very own espresso machine, seems to agree.

"Being back on superhero babysitting duty must be really rough on you," she jokes, after he takes a sip and lets out a satisfied little smile. She's envious right now, he looks so relaxed in comparison to how she feels, and she'd love to learn how to do that. (Pretty sure coffee wouldn't help, however.)

"It is a true sacrifice," Coulson quips back, and hums through the second sip.

"You look so chill - how are you so chill?"

"AC."

She lets out a choked little laugh, and then rubs her hands over her face. "I'm serious, AC, I know I said I'd never leave you guys again, but what if they make me?"

He sets the coffee mug down and walks up to the bed, sitting down next to her on the edge of it. She has promised him - _I won't leave you again, just let me come back_ \- because the lonely road has gotten too lonely, because she needs the tech SHIELD can provide, because she works better and gets more things done when on a team (with him), but the fear of being made to do something she doesn't want is pervasive. Courtesy of the past year, courtesy of her entire life if she thinks about it. She expects Coulson to hold her up to that promise, expects him to say that nothing will happen, she won't get prosecuted because they have repelled the Registration Act and because the UN has included the unjustified containment of Inhumans on the list of crimes against humanity, but that isn't what he does.

His hand finds hers over her knee. He squeezes her hand until she relaxes her fingers out of the tight fist she'd balled them into. "Then, the next time, we run together."

****five.** **

She has some savings of her own to pay for this room, so she refuses the offer to fund it on company money. (SHIELD isn't a company, she points out to Director Talbot, and smirks when he waves her off while grumbling about literal social justice warriors.) As far as hotels go, this one is a hint on the modest side, for being in the middle of Paris, but it's close to the street where they sell the best galettes and some great macarons, which she knows is really appreciated. (She'd had the option for a paradise island, but there was something about islands that made for a terrible vacation aftermath.)

"It feels weird that you'd invite me on your well-earned vacation," he says on the first night, as she closes the door to their twin beds hotel room behind her.

"Why? Talbot said to take a friend, Phil, and it's high time you relearn how to not turn a hotel room into a surveillance room."

Two days later, they push both beds together and stop pretending like this hasn't been a long time coming.

Three days later, Daisy pays for an extension on SHIELD money, and they turn it into a surveillance room. There's some dubious activity happening on the outskirts of Paris that really needs their attention, see, and _since they're on location..._

"Saw this coming too," Phil says, on the day Daisy first brings it up. They stay to save the day, on the condition that they don't have to eat disgusting turkey subs - those give him flashbacks to a sadder time, in sadder hotel rooms. It really is an improvement.


End file.
